Madonna claims millions over press wedding pictures

by Paul Conneally | December 8, 2008 at 09:02 am

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Madonna is claiming over £5m from the Mail on Sunday newspaper after it published private photos of her wedding to Guy Ritchie.

These photos had never been published before and were not taken sureptitiosly but were official photos that were then stolen from Madonna's home and sold to the Mail on Sunday by an interior designer doing work at her Beverly Hills home.

Singer Madonna is claiming more than £5m in damages after the Mail on Sunday published private photographs of her wedding to film director Guy Ritchie.

A high court judge today heard that pictures of the "wholly private" event at Skibo Castle in the Scottish Highlands on December 22 2000 were copied "surreptitiously" by an interior designer during work at Madonna's home in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.

The star's barrister, Matthew Nicklin, told Mr Justice Eady that no photographs of the marriage had been published anywhere in the world until October 19 this year.

On that date the Mail on Sunday published 11 photographs over the front page and a double-page inside spread.

Madonna, who recently divorced Ritchie, was given no warning, said Nicklin.

"She was ambushed, for the simple reason that if the Mail on Sunday had told her what they intended to do, the claimant would have sought and obtained an injunction," he said.

Nicklin added that after publication, Madonna launched legal proceedings seeking damages "in excess of £5m, being the estimated value of the photographs".

He said that the newspaper, which paid £5,000 for the photographs, "makes no attempt to defend what it did" and admitted breach of privacy and copyright.